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Tomorrow, November 22nd, is Antarctic Day! This is a day to celebrate our neighbors way way south where the penguins and icicles play. This may be a nice place to visit, if you can handle the extreme cold, but I think it’s safe to say that none of us would want to live there.  Since we won’t be unpacking for good any time soon in the Antarctic, how about we give it its own special day and celebrate!

Here are some interesting and fun facts to get you and your kids excited about the Antarctic:

• To avoid confusion, the Antarctic is the region around our Earth’s South Pole, while the Arctic region opposite it is around Earth’s North Pole.  Now which one does Santa fly from again? 
• Did you know that that there are no polar bears in this southern region?  They only live in the Northern Hemisphere.  Penguins, on the other hand, are abundant in the Antarctic. 
• The very first human to be born in the Antarctic was named Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen (have fun pronouncing that one!).  He was born on October 8 of 1913.
• This region had no indigenous people living in it when it was first discovered
• There are more tourists that visit the Antarctic each year than people who actually live there!

Well there you go! To find out more about the Antarctic, keep an eye out for our new title coming in February of 2012, called “The Penguin Lady,”by Carol A. Cole. In this picture book, Penelope Parker lives with penguins!  Short ones, tall ones; young and old—the penguins are from all over the Southern Hemisphere including some that live near the equator! Do the penguin antics prove too much for her to handle? Children count and then compare and contrast the different penguin species as they learn geography.

In the meantime, however, you can learn all about the Antarctic’s rival region, the Arctic, by checking out our wonderful title, “In Arctic Waters,” by Laura Crawford.  While reading this book, you and your child can follow polar bears, walruses, seals, narwhals, and beluga whales while they chase each other around the ice in the Arctic waters!  It is a pure delight to read aloud, and the “For Creative Minds” section helps children learn how these animals live in the cold, icy arctic region. 

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Our celebration of Halloween today is but a pale representation of its actual rich and multicultural history.  It was once a celebration marking the end of the growing season, and a heralding of the coming winter months.  It is told that this day, of all days in the year, is the one in which the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest.  It is the day that ghouls and ghosts can walk among the living.  While costumes today are for entertainment and fun, they were once used to confuse the dead and keep the living safe on this supernatural night.  Blended from several origins, including the Celts, Romans, and Catholic tradition, Halloween came to be it’s own special celebration.  Today, however, it has become a nationally commercial holiday, supported by a consumer based economy. 

Back in the old days…with the history of the Celts, Druid priests were believed to have the ability to commune with the dead.  It was rumored that their powers were the most powerful on the last day of the year: Samhain (sow-en) according to the Celtic calendar.  On this day, the Celtic people would extinguish their hearth fires and gather in front of a bonfire for the evening instead.  A celebration of singing, dancing, and listening to stories would ensue.  At the end of the evening, each family would take some of the bonfire home and relight it in their hearths in hopes of good fortune for their home and family in the coming year.  If it did not light, misfortune or death would come to someone in the house that year. The celebration of Halloween does not come directly from this day, however, for credit can also be given to the practice of several other cultures.

For instance, in the New World, Halloween was largely disallowed.  In Maryland, however, it was encouraged, and people would attend parties with singing and dancing and ghost stories.  Children would dress in costumes and try to scare one another.  The actual tradition of trick-or-treating from door to door, did not begin until the Irish immigrants brought it with them when they came fleeing from the Potato Famine. 

In relation to Pagan tradtion, this night was determined to be the night that a young woman would find out her future husband.  This would be done by looking into a mirror in a dark room or by peeling an apple and casting the peel over her shoulder.  Many Christian churches, who believed such paganistic rituals would lead to witchcraft and Satanism, created “Hell Houses” (haunted houses to us today), which were meant to scare children and young adults away from ever tampering with such damning traditions.

As you can see, this now famous American holiday is due to the old practices of many cultures throughout the centuries.  There is so much more to learn about the history of Halloween as well all the other holidays we celebrate with our friends and loved ones.  The best part is that ALL of the learning can be done through the simply wonderful act of reading!

Tomorrow, Nov. 1, is the start of National Family Literacy Month.  Take advantage of this time to spark a budding love of reading in your child.  Read to them about interesting facts they don’t know, and let them read with you.  Sylvan Dell Publishing has a whole slew of options that can help aid you in educating your little one on a parent-child basis.  Check out our homepage, and from there you can read about every book we have to offer you and your child!

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Have you discovered the joy of stamp collecting?  Better yet, have you discovered the joy of collecting anything at all?  Now, I’m not talking about the junk mail that finds its way onto each and every one of our kitchen tables.  I’m talking about the collection of something meaningful, something that can offer knowledge and educate us, or simply be productive fun.

This month is your chance to get in the spirit, because October is none other than National Collector’s Month (…and Halloween of course)!  Did you know that stamp collecting just so happens to be the most popular hobby in the world?  Who knew?  And just like me, I bet you’re asking, “Why stamps?”  Well, they aren’t just little pictures on little sticky pieces of paper.  Stamps represent different historical events, people, and places!  It is the perfect stepping stone to learning as much or as little as you would like about the world. 

This is the perfect hobby to start young or with children, because it gives kids the chance to ask questions, and it’s a fun way to start.  It opens the door to so much history and information.  It may be a stretch, but if you let it, collecting can be like visiting other parts of the world from your own living room.  If you are looking for it, this is a wonderful experience to share with your children.  You can choose any way to start, which give you the opportunity to choose an approach that will interst your child the most.  For instance, you can focus the collection on a particular place or time period.  Here are a few specific areas of collecting to consider:

• Topical (birds, castles, Disney, etc.)
• Precancels (US or foreign)
• Machins (Queen Elizabeth heads)
• Perfins (stamps with holes punched into them)
• Classics (stamps issued in the 19th century)
• and so many more!

Reading with your kids about other collectors can be another great way to get them interested in a hobby of their own.  Sylvan Dell publishes a book called “Sort it Out!”  by Barbara Mariconda.  In this book, Packy the pack rat collects tons of things and has to sort them out.  To him, all of the things he has collected are treasures in some way special to him.  This book also includes interactive activites on sorting, categorizing, and classifying.  Check it out, and maybe your child will find something awesome to collect too!